Fever

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Author's note: Ah, what happens when plans go awry.

Chapter 16 – Excuses Excuses

Hughes was acting rather cagey throughout the entire car ride, and he was driving unbelievably slow. Hawkeye wasn't quite sure what was wrong with him but she was much more concerned about the welfare of her dog than what was going on with Hughes. While Riza hadn't forgotten how he and Mustang had humiliated her she wasn't about to bring up how mad she was at him while he was doing her a favor.

They pulled up to the club around 5:30. Mustang wouldn't be out of work for another half hour and their plan wasn't suppose to take action until 7:00. 'How am I suppose to hold her off for another hour and a half?' Hughes thought wildly. It occurred to him as they got out of the car and walked into the club. "Hawkeye, you stay here and I'll go find the Manager." Hughes said.

"Why can't we look together?" Hawkeye ask.

"Why can't we-" Hughes mumbled under his breath, "Because! Because you need to stay here and wait to-to see if the manager walks by! It'd just be silly if we were just walking in circles looking for him. If you stay here and I go look for him then we'll be twice as likely to find him!"

"Oh okaaayy." Hawkeye said, a little weirded out by Hughes' over protectiveness.

"Great! You stay there, and I'll go look for the manager." Hughes said as he promptly walked off toward the stage door.

"We could just ask one of the waiters where he is." Hawkeye said to Hughes' receding form.

Hughes found the manager almost immediately. "We've got a problem." He said to the little round man. "She's here."

"What do you mean? You said you'd bring her by a little before 7:00." The manager countered.

"I know, but things got a little out of hand and she's here now."

"Well what do we do?" the manager asked wringing his hands.

"Look, she just wants the money. She doesn't know anything about the plan, so what I need you to do is to tell her that you don't have her money right now and that she'll have to wait until after tonight's show." Hughes explained.

"But isn't she going to ask why I don't have her money?"

"Tell her that you-you put it in the bank already and you can't get it to her until tomorrow."

"But then won't she just come back tomorrow?" the manager ask blowing holes through Maes' plan.

"Look, if it really was in the bank you wouldn't be able to get it until Monday anyway, so tell her that you'll give her the money you'll earn tonight. That way she'll have to come for it after the show." Hughes said. With all their bases covered the two gentlemen came out front to see Hawkeye chatting with Sam the bartender. "Does he know anything about the plan?" Maes asked the manager out of the side of his mouth.

"Everything." The manager replied back.

"Let's hope your hired help is discreet."

"Lieutenant!" Maes called out to her. "I found the manager." Hawkeye smiled at the small man as she shook his hand. "It's a bad break though," Hughes continued. "It turns out that he doesn't have the money ready for you."

"Oh really." Hawkeye said, interestingly enough she didn't appear surprised. "Why is that?"

"Oh, well sweet cheeks. After you ran off I went ahead and put that money in the bank. You know, I can't just carry around that kind of cash. But your friend here told me about your troubles and I decided the best plan was to just give you what we earn tonight as payment." The manager explained to her.

"That sounds fair." She said calmly. "I guess I'll just see you back here around closing time then." She finished as she started to get up and start toward the door.

"No!" the men said in sync.

"-err, what we mean is, why don't you stay for a while. You know, eat dinner…take in a show. You know to make up for this little mix up with the money." The manager said, beginning to sweat. He didn't like lying to military personnel. There was something about knowing they had a gun, bothered him.

"I guess that sounds all right." She said, being strangely cooperative now. Maes raised an eyebrow at her behavior, but was unwilling to question it. As long as she was here at 7:00, he didn't care why.